Board Extends Deadline for Picking L.A. Schools Chief

As a search committee sifts through resumes for the region’s top education post, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Thursday extended the deadline for making a final choice.

At the committee’s request, the Los Angeles Unified School District board postponed its decision from April 14 to “a date to be determined” in May. It also pushed forward public disclosure of the three to five finalists from today to April 10, two days after the election, when the district will make its second bid for a $2.4-billion school repair bond.

Board member Barbara Boudreaux, the only member to comment on the change, said she hoped there would be no further delays.

“I’d like to at least have some transition take place between the new superintendent coming in and the one going out,” she said.

Supt. Sid Thompson, who announced his resignation last summer, is scheduled to step aside at the end of June.

The decision to delay came against a backdrop of growing public pressure to open up the process, which has taken place largely behind closed doors for the last two months.

School reform groups and others are lobbying for an expansion of the promised public review process to include open meetings around Los Angeles.

“If it’s going to be so secret, there are bound to be problems,” said John Fernandez, a former teacher and director of the district’s Mexican American Education Commission.

But the board did not increase the two-week period that had been set aside previously for the board and community to meet and question the candidates. In fact, it was trimmed to six weekdays to be followed by three more if necessary.

Boudreaux questioned whether such a public review was appropriate, apparently responding to complaints from some candidates that they did not want their interest publicized.

“These candidates are applying for the superintendency of a large district, they’re not running for office as such,” Boudreaux said.

Board President Jeff Horton cut her off, asking that such discussion be reserved for the board’s March 31 meeting, when the search committee is scheduled to make recommendations about interview procedures.

Although the school board will make the ultimate decision, it early on shifted much of the responsibility for setting criteria and attracting candidates to two committees. Twenty-seven applicants responded to advertisements in a weekly education newspaper, and a search firm hired to guide the process recruited others, although that number has not been released by the district.

So far, only three candidates have publicly discussed their interest: Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias, former First Interstate CEO William Siart and British educator Matt Dunkley.